Unclear and Dark

Yesterday, was Qing Ming Festival. Qing Ming literally means ‘Clear and Bright’. It is also known as ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’ and is when people traditionally visit their ancestors’ graves and give them a bit of a tidy up.

I was puzzled by the connection between the name and graves. Clear? Bright?

So, I asked a friend. Apparently, it was originally a festival to mark the beginning of Spring (although we had the Spring festival earlier, although that usually takes place in the dead of winter), and people would go out in the clear and bright air to walk in the countryside. While they were walking, they hit on the idea of strolling over to great-grandfather’s bones and giving them a bit of a sweep. Seems reasonable.

There is only one flaw in this explanation. I looked out the window. Clearness and brightness were in decidedly short supply. It has been raining for days; the skies are dark and unfriendly. Not a day for walking in the countryside. The rain is horrid. It isn’t heavy but it seems to envelop you rather than fall on you.

Not only that, but a key light bulb in my sitting room exploded and I didn’t have a replacement. So, I had to drag myself out in the wet to buy one. Fortunately, Light Bulb Lane is not far away. Light Bulb Lane is a short alley full of light bulb shops. I go to my favourite and ask for a bunch of the light bulbs I have been buying regularly for the last five or six years. The woman looks at my sample (yes, I took the dead one with me), mumbles and mutters, scrabbles around in piles of light bulbs, runs to the shop next door, runs back and says “Mei You!” (“Don’t have!”) She then tries to sell me different light bulbs. She seems to think that a large round 25W bulb would be an excellent replacement for my small, narrow 60W bulb.

I take my leave and try every shop in the lane. None of them have my bulb and some shopkeepers look at my sample as if they have never seen such a ridiculous concept in their lives before. I have bought thousands of these bulbs in this very street before now. What is going on?

Finally, I buy a slightly different bulb which may fit inside my rather fussy light fitting and go home. Eureka! It fits and works. By now it is evening and getting even darker. I sit down at the computer and five minutes later the light bulb in my desk lamp pops and I am plunged into darkness. Yes, it’s the same type of bulb. The one which no longer exists. The one which has been removed from the collective memory of every vendor on Light Bulb Lane.

Clear and Bright? Don’t make me laugh.

tags: liuzhou  china  qingming  light bulb  ancestors  rain  

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